título da história de Joe Haldeman

10

Estou à procura de um conto que meu cérebro aconselha foi escrito por Joe Haldeman. Normalmente sou razoavelmente bom em pesquisar na web, mas desenhei um espaço em branco sobre isso.

A história se passa em um futuro distópico em um planeta sombrio do universo, onde a vida é geralmente difícil e a maioria dos colonos é mal paga & Excesso de trabalho e espero ser capaz de ir a outro lugar, mas tem esperança mínima de ser capaz de fazê-lo. Os humanos trabalham com nativos que têm inteligência de nível humano e são multipinos - tenho a impressão de algo parecido com um grande cão de seis patas. O personagem / narrador do ponto de vista é um deles. Ele e seu amigo humano trabalham longas horas em uma mina.

Mas espere - fica pior. A velha tia, que é o nome dela (ou talvez a vovó), decidiu gastar seus fundos de aposentadoria para pagar uma passagem só de ida para esse buraco do inferno. Ela chega ao meio-termo e seu sobrinho / neto / ... não se impressiona que ela tenha desperdiçado seu dinheiro assim quando ela poderia ter se aposentado em conforto a meio universo de distância. Ela conta histórias de dormir para as crianças.

Isso deve ser suficiente para identificar a história para quem a leu - seja por Joe H ou por outro. Se alguém puder identificar o título e o autor, ficarei muito grato.

    
por Russell McMahon 15.05.2015 / 11:18

2 respostas

É " La Befana " por Gene Wolfe.

“La Befana.” An old woman comes to a hostile planet in search of redemption for her sins, committed long, long ago.

Algumas citações da história:

When Zozz, home from the pit, had licked his fur clean, he howled before John Bannano's door. John's wife, Teresa, opened it and let him in. She was a thin, stooped woman of thirty or thirty-five, her black hair shot with gray; she did not smile, but he felt somehow that she was glad to see him. She said, "He's not home yet. If you want to come in we've got a fire."

....

Bananas nodded. Maria said, "Daddy, how did Grandmother come here?"
"Same way we did."
Mark said, "You mean she signed a thing?"
"A labor contract? No, she's too old. She bought a ticket - you know, like you would buy something in a store."
Maria said, "That's what I mean."
"Shut up and play. Don't bother us."
Zozz said, "How'd things go at work?"
"So-so." Bananas looked toward the back room again. "She came into some money, but that's her busines - I didn't want to talk to the kids about it."
"Sure."
"She says she spent every dollar to get here - you know, they haven't used dollars even on Earth for fifty, sixty years, but she still says it, how do you like that?" He laughed, and Zozz laughed too. "I asked how she was going to get back, and she said she's not going back, she's going to die right here with us. What could I say?"

....

"She could have lived good for the rest of her life on what that ticket cost her." Bananas was silent for a moment. "She used to be a big, fat woman when I was a kid, you know? A great big woman with a loud voice. Look at her now - dried up and bent over; it's like she wasn't my mother at all. You know the only thing that's the same about her? That black dress. That's the only thing I recognize, the only thing that hasn't changed. She could be a stranger - she tells stories about me I don't remember at all."
Maria said, "She told us a story today."
Mark added: "Before you came home. About this witch."
Maria said: "That brings the presents to children. Her name is La Befana the Christmas Witch."
Zozz drew his lips back from his double canines and jiggled his head. "I like stories."

A torção, que o consulente não incluiu, é:

Grandmother is implied to be "La Befana", doomed to walk the world seeking the Christ child, here even to other worlds, although the last line implies her journey is almost at an end. As Russel hinted in his comment, the last line is, "Not forever, dearest; only until tomorrow night."

    
28.05.2018 / 20:38

É categoricamente não um dos de Joe; Eu enviei um email para ele esta manhã e esta foi a sua resposta;

"It does sound like a Haldeman story, but not in this universe, I'm afraid. It has elements of "All My Sins Remembered" -- story and novel -- and a couple of the other stories I wrote set in the Confederacion universe. Please do let me know if you track it down!"

Desculpe, pessoal: - (

    
20.05.2015 / 23:10